No to Military, Yes to Hair: The Most and Least Stressful Jobs of 2014

You might be—especially if you’re a soldier, public-relations executive, newspaper reporter, or airline pilot. Those are among the most stressful careers for 2014, according to a new ranking from job-search website CareerCast.com.

Every year, CareerCast.com compiles lists of the ten most and least taxing jobs, scoring 200 occupations according to 11 different stress factors including physical demands, deadlines, competitiveness, and the amount of travel the job requires. The scores are then added up to give a total, with higher numbers signaling higher stress. (Sources for the data include government agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but also private surveys. See the full methodology here.)

It’s a cruel fact that some of the toughest positions in today’s economy, according to the lists, pay salaries that barely account for the shoulder-crunching tension they tend to inflict.

Enlisted military personnel earned the highest stress score at 84.72 but bring home a relatively low median salary of $28,840, according to BLS statistics. Reporters (score: 46.75) earn a median of $35,870, and firefighters (score: 60.45) make about $45,250.

Employers don’t compensate workers based on the level of physical or psychological demands on the job because “unfortunately, it’s all about supply and demand,” said CareerCast.com publisher Tony Lee.

“Through the downturn, cities weren’t hiring, so they didn’t have to pay more to fill positions like firefighters or police officers,” he said. Meanwhile, colleges continue to churn out high numbers of journalism graduates. “Despite what’s happening in that industry, you still have a lot of college grads who want to be newspaper reporters,” said Lee.

While the compositions of the top-ten lists hasn’t changed much since last year, the good news for most workers is that jobs seem to be getting a little less stressful year by year, based on declining overall stress scores. That’s likelydue to a slowly accelerating economy. “For some jobs, the hiring outlook might’ve improved a little or the salary might’ve gone up,” said Lee.

If you’re thinking of pursuing a more relaxing occupation in 2014, consider hair styling, jewelry-making, or becoming a tenured university professor—apparently these workers are living in relative ease. (However, hair stylists earn the lowest median salary of anyone on either list, at $22,700.)

And if you want the highest salary with the least stress—and you’re willing to switch careers based on one ranking—listen to this: audiologists earn median salaries of $69,720 and have a stress score of only 3.35.

About Real Time Economics

Real Time Economics offers exclusive news, analysis and commentary on the U.S. and global economy, central bank policy and economics. Send news items, comments and questions to the editors and reporters below or email realtimeeconomics@wsj.com.